The Corruption Game

The Corruption Game: Experience the balkan's thirst for hydropower

Sluiter, Kasper (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)

Keyson, David (mentor)
Vegt, Niko (graduation committee)

Delft University of Technology

Design for Interaction

2019-09-20

The River Intellectuals network is an organization that wants to connect academic students to Balkan river conservation. In July 2019 the first Student for River Camp is organized. Students from the Balkan, and the rest of Europe, applied for a week of lectures and activities at the Soča river in Slovenia. It is identified that these students, in varying degree, lack the knowledge of the cultural and political system that drives corruption in hydropower development. To transfer this knowledge, the medium of serious game is chosen, due to its effective, engaging and reusable nature. The aim of this project is therefore to: Design a serious game that engages the students participating in the Students for Rivers Camp, educate them in the complex system of hydropower development, And Inspire them in using their expertise and ambition for Balkan river conservation. To achieve this, the problem is investigated first. The culture of corruption is the result of the Balkan’s turbulent past, and manifests itself in a combination of bribing, threatening, rule bending and nepotism. The story to tell is that of Government officials and Hydropower companies enriching each other, over the backs of the local communities. The banks who invest in the hydropower projects don’t know, or don’t want to know about this. Activists try to stop hydropower development by activating the local community. The corruption game uses a combination of game mechanics to simulate this story. There are several characters to play, each with different and confliction goals and rules. Some want to develop hydropower dams, others try to prevent that. A stack of event cards guide the players through the game. The game is finished with a group evaluation, and individual assignment. The corruption game has been successfully tested at the Students for River Camp. 42 students and lectures played it as part of the program. It has been evaluated positively in achieving its goal. The game have been referenced multiple times throughout the week by lecturers, students and organization alike. Plans have been made to develop the project further, doing a final iteration. The ambition is to spread the Corruption Game to NGO’s worldwide.

Serious gaming
River conservation
Corruption
Balkan

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:dc584757-1eaf-42b3-a23a-c3c50bad06ba

Student theses

master thesis

© 2019 Kasper Sluiter